When you include rules & rankings in a social system, you're laying foundational elements for an emerging culture -- and communicating what's valued within that culture. As the recent brouhaha over Orkut deletions demonstrates, the absence of clear rules can lead to confusion, anger and lots of energy spent exploring the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Given that Orkut is still in Beta, this is arguably a useful and necessary part of the 'debugging process' - i.e. the members are helping Orkut debug and fix their Service Agreement and Code of Conduct, as well as their software. However, all that energy is NOT being spent on building relationships -- and the strength of those relationships will ultimately drive Orkut's success. So, bending & breaking the rules is one kind of meta-game -- but if you step back, squint your eyes and look at the experience of navigating a social network, you can see an exploring game where finding people and learning more about them is the core activity. What do people do in a first-generation social network? Browse profiles, follow links, collect friends, join and create groups, and search for people using a variety of criteria. Sounds kinda like a social exploring & collecting game to me :-) Computers allow us to create navigable 3D worlds -- and our sense are exceptionally well-tuned for operating in a physical space. Computer games like RPGs and MMPs allow us to embody a character and explore a fantastic 3D world -- but there's something equally fanstastic about exploring a fast-growing, ever-changing networked 2D world of people and relationships. Like MUDs, social networks are lightweight, easy to change, and leave lots of room for your imagination. Although they're not 'games' per se, social networks offer a new kind of entertainment experience that's centered around connecting with like-minded people. I can't wait to see what next-generation social networking apps look like -- I'm hoping we'll see some breakthrough products that redefine what a networked entertainment experience can be.

Introducing visible points and progressive levels is one way to make a system feel game-like. But points & levels are meaningless without a clear set of rules that outline how points are earned, and what it takes to attain new levels of achievement. Rules are a foundational element in game design: they setup the fundamental challenge of the game, and give direction and focus to the players. The same applies to social systems that track points and levels. For example, here are Amazon's rules for earning Reviewer points and becoming a 'Top Reviewer'. Clearly, you 'win this game' by publishing reviews that other people find useful -- which is a smart social game for Amazon to be running. Similarly, eBay's Feedback Forum includes clearly-outlined rules about giving and recieving feedback and earning new achievement levels. Dig deeper and you'll find eBay's policies for dealing with feedback abuse-- which are basically people's attempts to game the system.

A few weeks back, Clay Shirky posted about the lack of games coverage on Many2Many . That got me thinking about the relationship between game design and social software, and about why social software apps like buddy lists, blogs and social networks FEEL so game-like to me.

Mobile devices are all about connecting people to other people - so to gain a deeper understanding of where multiplayer mobile gaming is headed, I've been getting myself up to speed on the key social trends among mobile users worldwide. A few weeks ago, I ran across an article called Wireless fosters a societal evolution that got me thinking about mobility from a different angle. Intrigued, I ordered the research report referenced in the article: The Mobiles: social evolution in a wireless society. It's a fascinating read -- and one of the best resources I've run across for understanding worldwide social trends in mobile useage.

Multiplayer gaming IS social software -- and a fascinating development in this genre is the emergence of location-based cellphone games like BotFighters (the grandaddy of the genre, launched in 2001) and Undercover (launched in 2003). In these games, cellphone-toting urban warriors take to the streets of their city to search for clues, complete missions, and engage in battle (and conversation) with their fellow players. Each game overlays a virtual 'gaming grid' onto the physical layout of the city, and tracks the players' location within that grid using the built-in GPS of their cellphones. This genre is starting to mature -- as evidenced by hybrid lifeforms that are emerging. My current favorite is Mogi, Item Hunt, a Tokyo-based game where the core game mechanic is collecting and trading (rather than fighting). Using a live map (shown at right) as a guide, players move through the streets and 'pick up' virtual items with their cellphone interface. The goal is to amass points by completing collections -- and in addition to collecting items on the streets, players can trade items amongst themselves to complete their collections. Mogi also includes a buddy-based messaging service, and a mechanism for messaging any player who's online using the gaming grid. For a user-centric glimpse into what makes this game so compelling, check out this blog post from a Mogi player. Mogi also includes a full-featured Web-based game interface (shown at left) -- which means that logged-in players can communicate and trade objects seemlessly, regardless of whether they're using a cellphone or computer. THIS ROCKS -- I'm thrilled to see smart, creative developers experimenting with trans-device gaming experiences, which I think will be huge. If you know of other entertainment experiences that offer cellphone & web-based interfaces to the same data set, I'd love to hear about 'em. (psst -- here's a little secret I discovered: if you want to check out Mogi's web-based interface, type in 'test' for your username & password and have at it :-)

Thanks for the intro, Ross - it's great to be here, I'm looking forward to sharing what I'm focused on these days, and engaging in some lively discussions. I've got a few projects going right now -- including an upcoming talk at GDC Mobile on social trends in mobile gaming. I've been having a total blast doing the background research -- and I'd like to show you some of the cool mobile services that I'm learning about. First up - check out Saw-You, a UK-based service text-chat and avatar-matching service that's based around 'pub culture.' If you visit the site, be sure to check out the DEMO (click on the pink star). Also, go ahead and try creating a WeeMee - a simple little avatar that's used for real-world matching and searching. It's fun & impressively easy. Saw-you isn't a multiplayer game per se -- rather, it's mobile entertainment that includes game-like elements, including avatars, points, and a subscription model that's similar to many multiplayer games. I'm excited to see highly-social, location-based services like Saw-You emerge -- it looks like a new species of massively multiplayer entertainment. I'd love to hear what y'all think about social trends in mobile gaming. What are you noticing? What's 'hot?' How are the dynamics of Web-based social software intersecting with mobile culture?

David Hornik expresses skepticism about social capital and the YASNSes over at VentureBlog: I don't think the "social capital == capital" equation is as clear as Hornik does, but the possibility of network fatigue is real.